HECTOR -- Coy Nance is anxious to begin his senior season as Harding University's punter and placekicker for Harding University's football team, and for good reason.

The former Hector Wildcat has been a second team all-Gulf South Conference selection for two consecutive seasons. He was named to the Daktronics all-South Region third team after hitting 13 of 19 field goals and 34 of 40 extra-point attempts last fall.

He's on the verge of becoming the Bisons' career kicking leader and should set three school records before wrapping up his career this fall. He needs 11 field goals, 27 PATs and 57 points to set the marks in each of those categories.

More importantly to Nance, he will be able to perform without pain.

Nance had surgery performed on his left knee in May, and he is expected to be back at full strength in plenty of time before Harding opens its season Sept. 6 against East Central Oklahoma in Ada, Okla.

"I've spent the last couple of months not being able to kick or lift weights like I want to," Nance said Monday while working out at Hector High School's football field. "But a lot of the strength is back in my knee, and I should be 100 percent before it's time to report for preseason practices.

"It's hard to believe that this is my senior year and that it's gone by so fast. But there's no way I'm going to miss this season. I would play with a cast on my leg if I had to do it."

Playing through pain

Nance began experiencing pain in his knee just before the 2002 season began. However, with Harding's only other kickers being true freshmen, Nance went on playing through the season despite the aches.

"I thought it was just regular tendinitis," he said. "But I was constantly getting treatment for it because my knee was giving me trouble. After the season was over, I tried to take some time off and see if it will heal up. But it started hurting again during spring workouts, and I was really limited in what I could do."

Nance's problem was actually the patella tendon, which stretches over the knee. With that in mind, along came the surgery to get it repaired.

"The left knee affects the way I plant my foot as I'm kicking," he said. "There were some changes in the way I was planting my foot as I kicked, and it aggravated that tendon. Come to find out, there was some portions of the tendon that were dead and were getting inflamed, so the doctors had those cut out."

Always consistent

Despite the pain, Nance still maintained his consistent level of play throughout the 2002 season.

He set a school record for extra points in a season (34), and his 1.18 field goals per game average was the best in the GSC and 11th among NCAA Division II kickers. While his punting average dropped to 36.6 yards per kick (good for seventh in GSC), he placed 22 of his 60 punts inside the opponents' 20, five of them coming in a game against Henderson State.

His performance against the Reddies, which included two field goals, earned him special teams player honors by the GSC and nationally by Football Gazette. Harding coach Randy Tribble, when asked about Nance and his contribution to the Bisons, was quoted to say "I don't know what we'll do when he's gone. He's great under pressure."

"It feels good to have coach Tribble say something like that," Nance said. "But it also adds pressure. That's quite a load to carry when your coach has that much confidence in you. But as the season rolls around, you want your coach to have as much confidence in you as you do in yourself."

High work ethic continues

A trip to a Harding practice should tell the true story in how much confidence is placed on Nance. When practice time rolls around during the season, the Bisons' kicker is often found working out alone.

"Coach Tribble gives me a lot of freedom out there because he knows I'm going to push myself," Nance said. "When I get down, he often comes around and tries to keep my head up and make me stay positive. But he knows that I'm going to work through my problem and figure out what's wrong. I have pride in myself, and he knows I'll push myself as far as I can."

Even, as Nance will admit, eclipsing the high level of play he has already attained during the past three seasons.

"I've done all right throughout my career at Harding," he said. "But I've always throught I could do better. I'm never satisfied with my performance when it comes to the end of the year, and that's what keeps me going into next year.

"I've never really set goals for myself, as far as statistics are concerned, but I always want to do better than I did the previous year. I've always thought about averaging 40 yards per punt because that's the standard. I want to hit 75 percent of my field goal attempts, but I wouldn't be satisfied if I missed just one kick. As far as kickoffs, I'm always wanting to go a little deeper and a little higher."

It's no secret that Nance focuses his attention on how straight he kicks the ball, and not how far it can fly off his foot. It's one of the reasons why he is Harding's career leader in field-goal accuracy.

"I spend a lot of time kicking inside 45 yards, with most of the time being between 30 and 45 yards," he said. "I really don't spend a lot of time kicking real long field goals because, if you can hit a 45-yarder then you can hit a 50-yarder.

"I tend to spend my time working on the ones that I know I might have to kick in game situations. Once in a while -- when I feel I'm having a good day -- I may try to see how long of a field goal I can kick. But I have to work on accuracy and height because I have to kick over some big people in the Gulf South Conference."

Future plans?

About the only clear answer Nance didn't have Monday was when he was asked about what he plans to be doing after his career at Harding is finished.

"I really don't know right now," he said. "If I continue to perform well this season, then I'm pretty confident I could go somewhere and kick. I'll then look to participate in some combines and go to some tryouts because I would love to do that. I'm confident that somebody will want me to go somewhere.

"I know I'm on schedule to graduate in December 2004, and I hadn't thought of much past that. It would be interesting to become a graduate assistant and give the guys behind me some direction in kicking, although I haven't talked to coach Tribble about that. But all I'm worrying about right now is Sept. 6 [Harding's season opener] and working myself toward that."